Early Detection of Toxic Algae Confronts Testing Gap for Safer Harvests – FNHA
The WATCH project doubled its monitoring capacity this spring, with Stz’uminus First Nation, Snuneymuxw First Nation, Tla’amin Nation, and Tsawout First Nation establishing community-based Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) monitoring programs. We gratefully welcome these Nations to the WATCH monitoring community and honour the enthusiasm and knowledge they so graciously share. With each experience and every story, we are better equipped to advance the systems changes that are needed to support seafood safety in a warming world.
For many people, summer is a time of harvesting the many varieties of shellfish from the ocean. Setting crab and prawn traps in fine weather or digging clams when the tides are low.
Surveying more than 30 people harvesting on a beach on Okeover Inlet, Tla’amin Guardian Andrew Timothy notes they are all recreational harvesters from outside the community. One is shucking oysters and hungrily eating them, raw. It is June 19. Andrew says that Tla’amin community members are unlikely to harvest clams and oysters this time of year, because they know red tides are more common.
